Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-12-10
CHAPTER XVII.

Others of our party joined IL III bnuds
OF two OF three at short intervals and told
MS the thrilling story Of their adventures.
After q little the East Tcnncssccans were
remove from The lower to the upper
room as others of our number were
brought until at lust we were all below
and they were all taken ont, SO that we
had the dreadful place to ourselves.
Buffum, with grim huinor, would greet
the new arrivals, saying in his nasal way:
'Wcll, boys, they took you in out Of the
dcw!''
Every one was brought in chained in
some manner, but expected when put
into such 4 dungeon that these irons
would be removed. In this we were mis-
taken. Either from an excess of prccau-
tion or from the wisl, to punish us tho
ronsw were retained. Some were fastened
together by neck chains and others by
handouts. They economical in the use
Of the latter by making one pair serve
for two men, the right hand Of the one
and tho left Of the other being locked to-
gethcr. Rcddick was the first to whom I
was strongly attached for some time, but
was afteTward glad to exchange him for
Buffunl, who had Il very small hand and
was able by II little painful squeezing to
iraw it out altogether, leaving me with
simply ~ pair Of cuffs dangling from my
left hand.
That this terrible place was swarming
with vermin, not only rats and mice, but
other kinds, smaller and worse, will be
understood without further statement, as
well rs our helplessneas in guarding
against them while in the dark and In
chains, with not even as much water rs
we needed for drinking. One Of tho
grievances Of the jailer was the great
amount Of water we drank, or rather
wished to drink, for our %persuasions
shouted up through the trap door could
not induce him to greatly increase the
allowance which he deemed right, but the
officer OF the guard would sometimes
order him TO bring us more, which he
would do with great grumbling. Usually
tho water buckets would be empty long
before the time at the giving OF food
when he Judged it proper to replenisl
them.
Hunger was also very pressing. and as
one or TWO Of the number had managed
when searched to sccretc a little money
Ill the rest had been taken from us-wc
resolved to try to buy additional food.
Accordingly Swims was asked if he would
buy for us. He asked the guard, and,
finding no objections, said: eyes; you can
buy, il You have the money" We had q
very earnest consultation as to the form
in which the money would go the fur
thest, and finally settled on wheat bread
and molasses, as the latter was very
cheap. The money was handed up in the
evening. and We made great calculations
on having a royal breakfast next morning
all we could eat. The time came, and
we were more eager than usual for tho
lowering Of the bucket, but when it was
seized there was only the starving allow
ance Of corn bread and spoiled pork!
the wheat bread and molasscs,' He
leaned over and said, in his slowest and
most provoking tones: "B-o-y-s, 1 lost
that money! Could we have reached
him, l am not sure that he would not
have been lost also! 1t is hard to mag
inc how angry starving men could get
under the circumstances. We called to
tho officer Of the guard, who came to the
trapdoor and heard our grievance, but
only laughed ut us, saying that il We
trusted Swims with our money we would
have to take the consequences. Fortu-
nately we had not put quite all our funds
IN this one venture, and the officer tried
his hand with better results; but the
amount purchased was too small to be os
any considerable benefit.
4 very erroneous impression would be
given the reader If he imagined that VIC
spent our time here in nothing but help
lessly %bemoaning our misery. There were
times when our situation seemed over
whelming; but usually we kepto our minds
busy during waking hours IN telling
sts1tss. u spss1aaestng On the prospsss Of